Hidden 30,000 Point Sign Up Bonus: Amex Everyday Preferred

Last month I wrote about how the American Express Blue Business opens the door to carrying three credit cards for our household spend. Typically we like to keep things as simple as possible. Furthermore, carrying several cards with annual fees can quickly deteriorate our earnings. Since the Blue Business Plus doesn’t come with an annual fee, it allowed us to pick up a third card for gas and groceries. That third card is the American Express Everyday Preferred. Additionally, we snagged a hidden 30,000 point sign up bonus by using a trick many points and miles enthusiasts aren’t aware of.

Everyday Preferred Sign Up Bonus Opportunities

If you’re not a big techie, my apologies in advance, but this is important. When applying for a new credit card, always do your research to find the best available offer. For example, if I navigate over to the American Express website right now, the best available sign up bonus on the Everyday Preferred card is 15,000 Membership Rewards points. There’s also a way to use referral codes from other cardholders to get a 20,000 point sign up bonus. But never settle for second best, put your computer to work and make sure you get the 30,000 points you deserve!

Incognito, Cache, Cookies, and More!

If you’re into points and miles, chances are you probably have an American Express account. Every time you visit a banks website, they place “cookies” on your web browser. These are little trackers that companies use to see what type of behavior you engage in online. In the case of American Express, they often use this method to block existing cardholders from the best bonuses. Alternatively, Amex often present big offers to users that appear to have no history with the company. As you can imagine, banks want to bring in as many new customers as possible.

To find bigger offers, start with using Google Chrome as your web browser. Most people seem to be able to place Chrome in “incognito” mode to see the higher offers. In my case, this didn’t work from two different laptops, or my phone. My next test was Microsoft Edge, which comes installed with Windows 10. I didn’t even place the browser in any sort of private mode (if that exists?). I simply opened it for the first time and went to Amex’s website. To my surprise, the 30,000 point offer was front and center! If both of these methods don’t work, there’s some more handy information that can be found here and here.

Bottom Line

What you see, isn’t always what you get when it comes to sign up bonuses. Always do you due diligence to find the highest possible bonus. In this case, Membership Rewards are valued at about 1.8 cents each. As a result, I earned an additional $270 worth of points by doing a little research before applying!